Matters of politics and prose

Some high school students taking the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition test are protesting the College Board's decision to include a statement regarding exile by Edward Said. They take offense at Said being described as a "Palestinian American", when other authors' nationalities were not indicated. According to these students, the mention of Said's background is political and anti-Israel, and they won't stand for it.

They feel so strongly, that they haven't gone to the College Board with their complaint, but instead have formed a Facebook Group to impress upon the Board how many people agree with them.

The Said quote in question reads: “Exile is strangely compelling to think about but terrible to experience. It is the unhealable rift forced between a human being and its native place, between the self and its true home: its essential sadness can never be surmounted.”

I couldn't find the group page on Facebook, and I'm not sure if it was eventually taken down. I really hope so, for the sake of the high school seniors who started it. If speaking the term "Palestine" in the American education system is considered anti-Israel, then we are operating with a huge blind spot that refuses to acknowledge the reality of Israel's past and present. Props to the College Board for taking initiative and challenging high school students with questions and prompts that aren't "safe topics." I hope it, too, doesn't cave to the ludicrous victimization card pro-Israelis in the U.S. overplay.

But really, such protest speaks a lot to how one-sided discourse regarding the situation has limited our ability to critically think about state-hood, nation, homeland, and especially, exile. Ironically enough, exile is a language that both Israelis and Palestinians can understand. Actually, it's one that people around the world can relate to, one that has inspired brilliant, tragic and beautiful poetry.

Does the nationality of these writers matter? Of course it does. Nationhood is that very thing that has shaped them as poets and activists, and it's the one thing they cannot attain. To ignore that is to wipe out an entire people - once again - from the pages of history.

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"In October 2000 the world was tuned in to the Sydney Olympics. In the hostel, on D-day we were all glued to the TV set eager for the opening ceremony to begin. Halfway into the event I realized that I couldn't see clearly anymore and my face felt wet. I was crying. No, it wasn't the fact that I clearly wished I was in Sydney or the splendour of the atmosphere or the spirit of the games, I tried hard to explain to those around me. Bu they couldn't understand, couldn't even begin to understand....how could they? They belong to a nation. They have never had to conceive of its loss, they have never had to cry for their country. They belonged and had a space of their own not only on the world map but also in the Olympic Games. Their countrymen could march proudly, confident of their nationality, in their national dress and with their national flag flying high. I was so happy for them."

-- Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan freedom activist




"Bicentennial Poem #21,000,000"

I know
the boundaries of my nation lie
within myself
but when I see old movies
of the final liberation of Paris
with French tanks rumbling over land
that is their own again
and old French men weeping
hats over hearts
singing a triumphant national anthem.

My eyes fill up with muddy tears
that have no earth to fall upon.

-- Audre Lorde "Black Unicorn", a Caribbean-American writer and poet




"...as a writer or artist, even though I run no state and command no
power, I am entitled to feel that I am my brother's keeper and my
brother is the whole of mankind. And this is the relevance to me of
Peace, of freedom, of detente and the elimination of the nuclear menace.
But out of this vast brotherhood, the nearest to me and the dearest are
the insulted and the humiliated, the homeless and the disinherited, the
poor, the hungry and the sick at heart. And this is the relevance to me of
Palestine, of South Africa, of Namibia, of Chile, of my own people and
people like mine."
-- Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Pakistani poet, self-exiled in Beirut